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Saturday, 26 January 2013

M1070 truck & M1000 HETS trailer

Yes, I bought another kit, even though I have many unfinished ones. But I promise I won't be buying any new ones for the rest of 2013. Well ... I promise to try.

It was on my wishlist and when I found out the local hobby shop could get it, I just had to order it. "It" being the Hobby Boss 1/35 M1070 Truck tractor & M1000 Heavy equipment Transport Semi-trailer. That's quite a mouthful, but the kit is at least as elaborate as its title.

The box is huge and heavy and filled to the brim. Besides the plastic sprues, there's another box in it, with lots of upgrade/detail parts. (Keep scrolling to find out the content)

The kits I used to make in the past contained between 50 and 150 parts. The biggest thing I ever made was probably the International Space Station, which had around 200 parts. The M1A1 Abrams I'm about to make has around 300 parts.

This M1070 has around 1.500 parts (!!), counting only the 35 plastic sprues. They appear beautifully detailed and are well protected in the box. I haven't unsealed the plastic bags yet, because I don't plan to start construction right away.

The instruction sheet is a 48-page book with roughly half of the book for the truck and the other half for the trailer. Each step has a huge amount of construction, so it will be a challenge to build.

There are 2 painting options : "Sandy brown" or green/brown camo. I'm gonna stick with the sand color. Since my M1A1 Abrams is also 1/35 scale, I will paint both kits in the same color, so I can put the tank on the trailer (as shown in the box art), making up a nice display.

A bunch of decals provides warning signs and lots of small details.

As for the green box that is included, it appears to contain all the transparent and non-plastic parts.

51 rubber tires and 6 rubber suspension rings are provided. I'm guessing these will give a more realistic look and feel, instead of plastic wheels.

There's 157 photo-etch parts on 11 frets, which is a LOT. I only hope I will be able to bend and place all of them as intended. I have only ever installed 5 photo-etch parts and they required minimal bending.

Further realism is added by the remainder of the box. Metal parts and springs, rope and plastic ducts and metal wire are all included.

This is definitely the biggest, most expensive and most complex kit I've ever bought. I do not expect to build this in a couple of weeks. This is a kit for experience builders and even tough I have the required age (14), I'll continue sharpening my skills on my other works in progress before I tackle this one.